UK managed service provider, Astec uses Datagate to bill all of its telecom services, including Microsoft Teams Calling and a full range of broadband internet and voice services.
Before Datagate, Astec was using a bespoke SQL billing platform. Astec manually downloaded Call Data Records (CDRs) and uploaded them to the billing platform. Staff ran the CDRs and tidied up any errors. The billing platform would then produce a bill and Astec would do a synch with Sage for accounting.
“It was a long process – billing took 16 hours each month,” says David Angeloni, Sales Manager, Astec.
“It was easy to make mistakes when stressed. Sales staff used to end up doing the billing just to make sure it was correct. We needed to automate and we wanted a cloud-based billing system.”
Astec’s telecom billing now takes two hours with Datagate. It’s done by an admin person with no input required from sales staff.
“It’s very straightforward. It doesn’t easily go wrong,” David Angeloni says.
Datagate picks up CDRs direct from providers on a live feed. It’s easy to add new supplier codes, and errors like unrecognized numbers are easy to correct. Datagate’s integrations with ConnectWise Manage, ConnectWise Agreements and Sage mean customer and call data populate to them automatically. The data pulled into Sage is identified as telecommunications to enable detailed reporting separate to IT services.
Big improvement for UK managed service provider customers
Astec’s customers can go to their own portals to analyze their spend, most-called numbers and other reporting.
“It’s a big improvement for our customers,” David Angeloni says.
“We give them reports but they can also now ask their own questions. The telecom bill format with Datagate is also shorter and easier to understand.”
The UK managed service provider recently moved its platform to Microsoft Teams Calling. The company is a Gold Microsoft partner, offering a virtual CIO service that includes strategic reviews of both IT and telecoms.
“MSPs want to own the customer relationship and our customers want that too,” David Angeloni says.
“Customers don’t want to deal with a lot of different suppliers. If everything’s in one place there’s only one company to contact for changes or support. We can manage the customer experience so much better – whether adding new phone numbers or setting up remote working environments to empower working from home.
“I would recommend Datagate. It saves enough time to pay for itself and it’s easy to use – just set and forget. I’m confident to go on holiday without worrying.”
